Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Arise, O God of Our Fathers
Psalm 44
1 For the music director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song.
2 We have heard with our ears, O God
—our fathers have told us—
of a work You did in their days, in days of old.
3 With Your hand You displaced nations, but You planted them.
You afflicted peoples, and You drove them out.
4 For it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land,
nor did their own arm save them.
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face—
for You favored them.
5 You are my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
6 Through You we push back our foes.
Through Your Name we trample those rising up against us.
7 For I do not trust in my bow,
nor can my sword save me.
8 For You saved us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hated us.
9 In God we make our boast all day
and Your Name we praise forever. Selah
10 Yet You have spurned and humiliated us,
and no longer go out with our armies.
11 You make us retreat before the enemy.
Those who hate us have plundered us.
12 You gave us to be devoured like sheep[a]
and have scattered us among the nations.
13 You are selling Your people cheaply—
not even getting a great price for them.
14 You made us a taunt for our neighbors,
a scorn and ridicule for those around us.
15 You have made us a byword among the nations,
head-wagging among the peoples.
16 All day my disgrace is before me,
and my face is covered with shame—
17 because of the sound of taunting and reviling
from the face of a vengeful enemy.
18 All this came upon us, though we did not forget You,
nor were we false to Your covenant.
19 Our heart did not turn back,
nor did our steps stray from Your path.
20 Yet You crushed us in a place of jackals,
covered us with the shadow of death.
21 If we had forgotten the Name of our God
or stretched our hands to a foreign god,
22 would God not have discovered it?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
23 But for Your sake we are slain all day.
We are counted as sheep for slaughter.[b]
24 Awake! Why do you sleep, my Lord?
Wake up! Do not cast us off forever.
25 Why do You hide Your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
26 For our soul sinks down to the dust.
Our belly cleaves to the earth.
27 Arise, be our help,
and redeem us
for Your mercy’s sake.
11 Also, Judah, there is a harvest for you,
when I return My people from captivity.”
Iniquity of Senseless Ephraim
7 “When I would have healed Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,
even the wickedness of Samaria,
for they practice fraud.
So a thief breaks in;
a marauding band will raid outside.
2 But they never admit in their heart
that I remember all their evil.
Now their deeds are all around them.
They are right before My face.
3 They gladden the king with their evil
and the princes with their lies.
4 All of them are practicing adultery,
as an oven heated by a baker who stops stirring
or kneading dough when it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king,
princes become sick from wine.
His hand drags scorners along.
6 For their hearts are like an oven,
as they wait in ambush.
All night their anger smolders.
In the morning it burns like a blazing fire.
7 All of them are hot like an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All of their kings have fallen.
None among them calls on Me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples.
Ephraim has become a pancake
that never gets turned over.
9 Strangers devoured his strength—
yet he does not know it.
Gray hairs have spread on him—
and he does not know it.
10 Though the Pride of Israel
has answered him to his face,
yet they did not return
to Adonai their God,
nor seek Him about all this.
11 Ephraim is like a senseless silly dove,
they call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.
12 As they are going,
I will spread out My net over them,
I will bring them down like a bird from the sky.
I will chasten them as in the report
that comes to their assembly.
13 Oy to them!
For they strayed from Me.
Devastation to them!
For they rebelled against Me.
Should I redeem them
after they spoke lies about Me?
14 Nor did they not cry to Me in their heart
when they were wailing on their beds.
For the sake of grain and new wine
they slash themselves—
they keep turning away from Me.
15 I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they kept planning evil against Me.
16 They will turn back—only not upwards.
They are like a treacherous bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword
because of the insolence with their tongues.
This will be for their ridicule in the land of Egypt.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors do the same, don’t they? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than anyone else? Even the pagans do that, don’t they? 48 Therefore be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.